BUOY

BUOY, (bouée, Fr.) a sort of close calk, or block of wood, fastened by a rope to the anchor, to determine the place where the anchor is situated, that the ship may not come too near it, to entangle her cable about the stock, or the flukes of it.

Buoys are of various kinds; as,

Can-Buoys; these are in the form of a cone, (see plate II. fig. 6.) and of this construction are all the buoys which are floated over dangerous banks and shallows, as a warning to passing ships, that they may avoid them. They are extremely large, that they may be seen at a distance, and are fastened by strong chains to the anchors which are sunk for this purpose at such places.

Plate II

Nun-Buoys, are shaped like the middle frustum of two cones, abutting upon one common base, (plate II. fig. 7.) being casks, which are large in the middle, and tapering, nearly to a point, at each end.

Wooden-BUOYS, are solid pieces of timber, sometimes in the shape of a cylinder, and sometimes of a nun-buoy; they are furnished with one or two holes, in which to fix a short piece of rope, whose two ends being spliced together make a sort of circle or ring called the strop.

Cable-Buoys, common casks employed to buoy up the cables in different places from any rocky ground. In the harbour of Alexandria, in Egypt, every ship is moored with at least three cables, and has three or four of these buoys on each cable for this purpose.